WHEN “LECTURE” AND “LAB” ARE IN THE SAME ROOM: STRUCTURING CLASS TIME AROUND LEARNING OBJECTIVES, NOT THE DAY OF THE WEEK

One alternative to the traditional lab-lecture format is to forget that Monday is scheduled for lecture and Wednesday is scheduled for lab and to think instead of what learning objectives need to meet, and how one can best meet them with the time spent in class. At Northeastern Illinois University, Earth Science lab courses are scheduled so that both “lab” and “lecture” meet in the same lab classroom. This makes it possible to use a variety of pedagogic techniques to help students learn the desired concepts and skills. Lab explorations can excite student interest and generate student questions. Creating a list of student questions or observations can lead naturally into brief but engaging lectures and class discussions. These activities can be followed up by more formal lab investigations. Several examples from courses in mineralogy and petrology will be presented.